Machine for making cartridge



Feb. 11, 1958 F. NIEPMANN MACHINE FOR MAKING CARTRIDGE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed April 28, 1952 lllllllllllllil ifIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Illll' will '1. MIL? IHH Illl HHIIII-I Feb. 11, 1958 F. NIEPMANN MACHINE FOR MAKING CARTRIDGE 2Sheets-Sheet 2 filed April 28, 1952 INVENTOR- alzdfkh jaw 40%,

2,822,718 M'Aciinsza FOR C RTRIDGE Friedrich Niepmann, Gevelsberg,Germany than; April 28,1552, sta r No. 289,452 Claims. (21. 86 -20) The;invention refers to a machine for making cartridge, particularly forpacking gelatinous explosives, which are fed by a worm conveyor intoreceiving chambers on a dial.. a 3

The invention consists in the fact that the filling dial, whichis,,pr0vid ed with tubes, is placed directly in front of a; wormconveyor housing which is filled with the explosive, next to which thereis a plunger which tamps the explosive into jackets which have beenforced over the tubes. and-,which, along with a, counterpoise push rod,deposits the loaded jackets in the cells of a stop along fine III-IIIthe explosive to the mouthpiece 4. The feed screw 3 is driven by shaftSby means of coupling 6. The drive for the whole machine is throughV-belt pulley '7, which is located on :mainshaft 8. This,,sha ft has asprocket wheel. 9 which, by means of a chain 10, drives sprocket whfeellflllo n shaft 5. M, j I,

Directly in front of the mouthpiece 4 oft'he worm conveyor housing lthere is. .a filling dial 12 which is driyen by shaft 13. At the endo fshaft therej is. cog wheeL14, which meshes with cog w heel 15 onchangesfpeledQshaft 16. On this change-jspeedlshaft J16 there islagslotjted cross 17, which is given intermittent'rotation by'means of apin 18 on a driving disk 19. Next to this driving disk 19 there is thecustomary locking disk 20. Driving disk 19 and locking disk 20 arelocated on the main shaft 8. As is shown in Fig. 2, slotted cross 17 hasfour slots, so that one revolution of the main shaft 8 causeschange-speed shaft 16 to execute a quarter revolution.

In accordance with Fig. 2, two filling dials 12 and 21 canadvantageously be arranged side by side, with two worm conveyor housingsprovided for them. The two filling dials 12 and 21 can be givencounterrotation.

Each filling dial is provided with four tubes 22, two of which arealongside each other in one plane at any given time. Each worm conveyorhousing has two dischargeorifices for two tubes each, so that two ofthese tubes are filled simultaneously.

The paper jackets 23 used for loading are already closed on one end andare placed on a tray 24 (Fig. 2) so arranged that there is a trough 25in front of each tube, into which one jacket falls. The jackets 23 liein the trough 25 in such a way that the closed end of the jacket istoward the left, as in Fig. 1. At the level of the 2 upper tubes 22there arepush rods 26 which slide, by means of carriages 27, on tracks28. When the jackets 23fall into the troughs 25, these push rods 26 areat their left hand end position. The push rods .26 thenat intervalsshove the open end of a jacket 23 over. oneof the upper tubes 22. Duringthis movement of the jackets,

. the coupling 6 for the two feed screws 3 is engaged. These feed screwsthen begin to convey the explosive 2 from the conveyor housing 1 intothefour upper tubes of the filling dials 12 and 21. p

The movement of the push rods 26 is transmittedby' a rod 29 which isactuated by a rocker 30. This rocker pivots around a pin 31 and isjoined to a lever32, whose roller 33 is governed by a cam 34. This camis located on a shaft 35 which is driven, by means of two sprocketwheels 36 and 37 and two bevel gears 38 and 39, by an intermediate shaft40. On this shaft 40 is a sprocket wheel 41 which meshes with a sprocketwheel 42 on the main shaft 8. One revolution .of shaft 35 thereforeproducesa back-and-forth movement of push rod 26.. A draw spring 43 isattached to rocker 30 so that roller 33 is always in contact with thecam.

Shortly after the jackets23 have been pushed completely onto the tubes22, the frontal area of the explosive, which has been forced through thetubes 22, reaches the already folded bottom of the jackets. Then, as aresult of the pressure which the explosive exerts on the bottom of thejacket, the loaded jacket begins to move to the left and forces the pushrod 26 back. The position of the jacket at the beginning of thismovement is shown in Fig. 3. After moving distance s in Fig. 3, thecoupling 6 for the worm drive is disengaged, which stops the feeding ofthe explosive. This disengagement occurs in the following manner:

The rocker 30 for the push rod 26 carries a catch 44 which engages aslot 45 in a lever 46 when the rocker 30 moves to the right. This lever46 is connected a check lever 47 which acts on the coupling lever 48.When the rocker 30 is moved to the left through an angle 49 from itsright hand end position it pulls the lever 46 along toward the left,whereby the check lever47 is displaced, releasing the coupling lever48., So that the rocker 30 may continueto move to the left withoutinfluencing the lever 46, the left end of thelever 46iis raised by a rod50 which is acted upon by a lever 51 and another lever 52. The roller ofthe latter lever is in contact with a cam 53. At the moment .in whichlever 48 is released, the coupling 16 is disengaged by way of a rod 54and a cam 55 and the feed screws 3 are thus stopped. By delicateadjustment of this disengagement mechanism the volume of explosive fedinto the tubes 22 can be very precisely controlled.

The push rods 26 are then quickly brought back to their left hand endposition, so that four more empty jackets can glide into the troughs 25.

In front of the filling dials 12 and 21 there is a stop dial 56 whichhas four cells on each side. When the two adjacent filling dials 12 and21 turn 180 degrees, the stop dial 56 is simultaneously turned degrees.This stop dial 56 is located on the change-speed shaft 16, which bearsthe grooved cross 17. When the filling dials have turned, a plunger 58is pushed into the tube from the right. Before that, at the plane ofcontact between the dial and the mouthpiece 4, the turning of thefilling dial has separated the explosive in the tubes 22 from theexplosive present in the mouthpiece 4, whereby the exact volume ofexplosive pressed into the tubes remains in them and control of theweight of the explosive charge per cartridge is therefore guaranteedwithin very small tolerances.

On the same level with the plungers 58 there are counterpoise push rods59 which move through the cells 57 which are on top as far as the bottomof the jacket 23 on the tube 22. The plungers 58, which move from rightto left, push the explosive before them and in so doing push the jacketsoff the tubes toward the left in suclt a way that the loaded jackets arepicked up by the four' upper cells 57 of the stop dial 56. Thecounterpoise-push rods 59 move with the plungers but sufficientlydelayedi that the explosive is tamped into the jacket, so that the:jackets, whose inside diameter is larger than the outside diameter ofthe tubes, are completely filled: with the explosive. When the jacketsare pushed all the way into the cells 57, the counterpoise push rods 59are quickly pushed out of the cells 57 of the stop dial toward theleft.At the same time, the plungers 58 are forced? back to their right handend position.

The motion of the plungers 58 is imparted by a cam". 60 on shaft 35,through a roller lever 61 and a rocker 621v The motion of thecounterpoise push rods 59 is imparted by a cam 63 on a shaft 64. The cam63 acts on a roller lever 65 and a rocker arm 66, which is attached tothe counterpoise push rod 59.

The cam 63 is attached to shaft 64, which is driven by shaft 40 throughbevel gears 67 and 68, a vertical shaft 69, and bevel gears 70 and 71.

The loaded jackets 23 which have been picked up in the cells 57 of thestop dial 56 and whose unfolded, open end juts out beyond the edge ofthe cells, reach a position, when the stop dial is revolved by 90degrees, in which the four loaded jackets are one above the other on theright side of the stop dial, in accordance with Fig. 2. In this positionthe familiar folding apparatus 72, 73, 74, and begins to operate on theends of the paper jackets (Fig. 4), and by means of this foldingapparatus the folding of the open ends of the jackets takes place in awell-known manner while the stop dial 56 is standing still, thus closingthe loaded jackets.

After another turn of the dial 56 the finished cartridges reach thelower position on the dial 56. Then ejector rods 76 go into operation,moving into the cells 57 toward the right, pressing the four finishedcartridges 77 out of the dial, whence they are conveyed by any suitablemeans from the cartridge loading machine to the place where they arepacked. The motion of the ejector rods is imparted by a cam 78 through alever 79 and a rocker arm 80.

Since the two filling dials 12 and 21 turn 180 degrees at each -degreeturn of the stop dial, four loaded and closed cartridges 77 leave themachine at each cycle. The cartridges are characterized by maintenanceof very close tolerances in the weight of the charge.

In place of the vertical arrangement, the folding apparatus could alsobe horizontal, so that the ejection station would then have cells lyingvertically above one another. The stop dial could also be arrangedhorizontally.

I claim:

1. A machine for loading cartridges, particularly gelat-- inousexplosive comprising a source of explosive mate-- rial having adischarge mouth, endless screw means with-- in the said source forforcing the material through the: mouth, a rotatable filling diallocated directly in front of the discharge mouth, a plurality of hollowtubes carried by the filling dial and movable into registry with saiddis-- charge mouth, means to guide and support a container having oneclosed end in alignment with the central axis of the hollow tubes, apusher element movable toward and away from the tubes located on thecentral axis of the tubes, further means to move said last named pusherelement toward the tubes to force the containers onto the tubes, afurther pusher element movable into the tubes to force the containerwith the material therein off the tube, a rotatable stop dial arrangedaxially parallel to and spaced from the filling dial, a series ofcompartments on the stop dial facing in the direction of the tubes ofthe filling dial, a counterpoise push rod movable into at least one ofthe compartments from the end opposite the said filling dial, the pushrod being movable in the same plane as the further pusher element, meansmoving the further pusher element toward the compartment and the pushrod out of the compartment so that the material is tamped into thecontainer, and further means to eject the container from thecompartment.

2. A machine as defined in and claimed by claim I further characterizedin that means is provided to inactivate the endless screw means when thefurther pusherelement is pushed away from the tubes a predetermined.distance upon the filling of the containers.

3. A machine a s defined in claim 1 wherein a rocker is operativelyconnected to and moves the push rod, a catch on the rocker, a couplinglever engageable with the catch, and cam means to lift the lever fromthe catch.

4. A machine as defined in claim 1 wherein the push rod and pusherelements are driven from a shaft by cam and linkage means.

5. A machine as defined in claim 1 wherein the counterpoise push rodsand the ejector rods defining the ejecting means are driven from a shaftby cam and linkage means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS749,644 Thorn Jan. 2, 1904 1,612,479 Wellhauser Dec. 28, 1926 FOREIGNPATENTS 359,071 Italy May 12, 1938 711,453 Germany Oct. 1, 1944 817,266Germany Oct. 15, 1951 510,995 Belgium May 15, 1952

